Tavares Named Rookie of the Year

By pbadmin

May 2nd, 2006

OHL Press Release

The Ontario Hockey League today announced that John Tavares of the Oshawa Generals is the 2005-06 Emms Family Award winner as the OHL Rookie of the Year.

Tavares, the first overall selection in the 2005 OHL Priority Selection scored 45 goals in 65 games to lead all rookies this season and established a new Canadian Hockey League scoring record for underage players. John also added 32 assists for a total of 77 points, which placed him second among OHL rookies.

The 15 year old, Oakville native who is not eligible for the National Hockey League Entry Draft until 2009, enjoyed 20 multiple-point games, including hat tricks on December 16 against Plymouth and February 15 versus Guelph. He was the OHL’s Rookie of the Month in December, January and February.

Tavares was a member of Team Ontario at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge this past winter in Saskatchewan. He was the top scorer in the tournament with 6 goals, 8 assists and 14 points. He also recently represented Canada in the IIHF World Under-18 Hockey Championships in Sweden. Tavares recorded 2 goals, 3 assists and 5 points in seven games during the tournament.

The Emms Family Award is presented annually to the top first year player as selected by OHL general managers. Teams were not permitted to vote for a player from their own hockey club. Players received five points for a first place vote, three points for a second place vote and one point for a third place vote.

Tavares received 93 points in the voting, while Logan Couture of the Ottawa 67’s was second with 32 points and Sergei Kostitsyn of the London Knights was third in the voting with 30 points.

Former winners of the Emms Family Award include Wayne Gretzky (Sault Ste. Marie, 1977-78), Joe Thornton (Sault Ste. Marie, 1995-96), Owen Nolan (Cornwall, 1988-89) and Rick Nash (London, 2000-01). Benoit Pouliot of the Sudbury Wolves won the award last season. The award was donated by Leighton “Hap” Emms, former owner of the Barrie, Niagara Falls and St. Catharines OHL franchises.